TV hijacking puts Falun Gong protest on airwaves in China

A Chinese city TV station has been hijacked by the banned Falun Gong spiritual sect in another sign of defiance to tough measures taken against it over the past three years.

A state channel in Changchun showed film of the sect's spiritual master, Li Hongzhi, who Beijing claims is the leader of an "evil cult".

The incident occurred on Tuesday - the same day that China's annual parliament, the National People's Congress, opened in Beijing.

"There was a brief blackout and then there was Li Hongzhi speaking, and banners saying Falun Dafa [another name for the sect] is good," a viewer told Reuters in Beijing. Officials in Changchun said the authorities were investigating.

The viewer said that the interruption lasted for 50 minutes, but according to the local cable company there was only a 10-minute break in normal transmission.

Changchun is the hometown of Mr Li, who now lives in the US, and is the capital of the north-east province of Jilin. A local newspaper said that one person had been arrested.

Yesterday, seven foreign supporters of the sect briefly demonstrated in Tiananmen Square, outside the hall in which a meeting of the National People's Congress was taking place.

Beijing has also been stung this week by a section in the US state department's annual human rights report criticising China's performance.

The report says that since the introduction of the ban on Falun Gong, "the mere belief in the discipline ... has been sufficient grounds for practitioners to receive punishment ranging from loss of employment to imprisonment".

It says that some practitioners in custody have suffered torture and death, hundreds have been convicted of crimes, and many more have been punished without trial.

China responded to the report by accusing the US of "confusing truth and falsehood to attack China on its legal system, ethnic policies and human rights conditions".

The foreigners who were arrested yesterday had tried to unfurl a banner saying "Falun Dafa is good", but were pounced on by plainclothes police officers who keep watch the square.More than 50 foreigners were expelled from the country last month, and 35 in November, after similar protests.